Citizens Fiber Moves Services Forward Via MobiTV Pact

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A MVPD with a large imprint in such Southwest Pennsylvania towns as Greensburg and Latrobe will soon see the benefits of an expansion and upgrade plan that’s largely the result of a newly forged deal with IP-based video delivery provider MobiTV.


Citizens Fiber, which provides gigabit internet, cable television and phone services in areas of Westmoreland County, Penna., is rolling out the MobiTV Connect platform to deliver app-based Pay TV services.

The initiative is the first step for Citizens Fiber as it seeks to modernize its customer experience and reduce hardware costs.

It’s also a deployment that Citizens Fiber hopes will both retain existing subscribers and attract new customers in its expansion areas.

Citizens Fiber will initially test the platform with a select group of beta users before deploying the solution across its full user base, later this spring.

“We know app-based delivery is the future of television,” said Zach Cutrell, Operations Manager at Citizens Fiber. “The partnership with MobiTV has been a healthy and beneficial relationship since day one. Their vision for where the industry is headed, attention to detail, and willingness to work with a provider of our size has been a breath of fresh air. They engineered a solution that allowed us to share costs of the necessary cross-country circuit and streaming server with another progressive thinking fiber company outside of Pittsburgh; Hickory Telephone Company. Being able to share these costs, having our own distinct customer facing applications in the App stores, and not outlaying a significant investment has been a game changer for both companies.”

Citizens Fiber has 3,500 unique subscribers across all services.

The SaaS-based MobiTV Connect platform allows for real-time enabling of new technologies such as 4K/HEVC, Cloud DVR, replay TV, and voice control. Customers may download the app and view television on any connected device.

“We view IP-based TV solutions as a booster rather than a barrier to the future of television,” said MobiTV Chairman/CEO Charlie Nooney. “We now live within a rich device ecosystem where delivery of Pay TV services on multiple devices is now common place. MobiTV provides a solution that adjusts to a variety of connection environments (wired vs wireless) while making it simple to customize an experience for the end user, and the interchange of content simple for the operator.”